I’ll be straight up… When I visited Osaka, there was only one thing on my mind: eating everything.
Osaka has a reputation as the kitchen of Japan and that reputation is deserved enough. But did it live up to the hype? Or was it all just marketing talk?
What I Ate in Osaka
Street Food That Actually Fills You Up
It turns out Osaka doesn’t need marketing. The food here hits different. No one particular restaurant or specialty surprised me more than anything else.
Rather, it was that the entire city appear to be built around food. Literally every conversation, street corner, and hour of the day are woven with it. Here’s what I discovered on my visit.
Back then, I thought of street food as just a snack affair. But the food stalls of Osaka is more like portions fit to fuel you for half a day. One afternoon, I picked up some takoyaki from a vendor near Dotonbori, watched him flip each ball with chopsticks on that ridged iron griddle, and ended up eating eight pieces standing right there on the pavement.
They were hot enough to scorch my tongue, dancing with bonito flakes and slathered in mayo. I didn’t need lunch after that. Osaka street food isn’t precious; there are no dainty creations here.
This is working food. I watched queues of locals lining up for oden at a small counter underneath a railway bridge.
Seafood You Can Trust
They snatched a skewer of fish cake and daikon directly out of the simmering pot of dashi and carried on their way back to work. There is no fuss or ceremony. Just some good, filling grub that will get you moving.
Ramen Without the Line
Osaka’s fish markets has made me feel comfortabley trying just about everything raw because I’m picky about raw seafood. One vendor had rows upon rows of whole crab legs on crushed ice beneath glass cases. Another seafood counter that I wandered into displayed fresh-looking, wet fish, all arranged neatly for sashimi.
The king crab and sea urchin is clean, sweet-tasting, and have no hint of being fishy or off. At one stall, I waited as they grilled up some skewered shrimp and crab in front of me then gave them to me still crackling hot from the grill. Nothing stays around long enough to go bad here, and turnover rate is quick enough.
In Tokyo, there are ramen shops where you wait an hour to be served. In Osaka, ramen shops…just serve you. A random side street, a quick duck into a tonkotsu shop, and ten minutes later, I’m slurping down some noodles.
The porky, thick broth stick to your spoon. I’ll have abura soba (no broth, just chashu pork, a puddle of sauce on the bottom, and noodles) another day. Mix it all together and eat quickly: It’s best when it’s still hot.
Even at Ichiran, I walked in and sat down immediately. At this restaurant, you use a vending machine to order and then sit in a small booth to eat by yourself. In Osaka, you don’t have to work for your noodles.
Wagyu That Doesn’t Break You
When I went to Osaka, however, I realized I didn’t have to save up for anything big or special to eat wagyu. There were hot pot places and shabu-shabu restaurants where I could get a few paper-thin slice of marbled beef without taking out a mortgage. It would arrive on a wood plank, thin like paper, and I’d cook it right before me at the table in boiling broth.
At one restaurant they gave me wagyu tartare; with a raw egg yolk on top, which I stirred around and ate over rice. Another offered spiral-sliced wagyu and pork. What they called “flowers.” Nothing cost an arm and a leg, yet it also wasn’t crazy-expensive.
This was food I could actualy afford to try.
Eel Worth Ordering
Grilled eel (Osaka). I don’t typically like eel. I always feel guilty about ordering it because I hate it, but that all changed after tasting this.
Grilled eel is one of those classic Japanese foods that gets served in a lacquer box on top of some rice. Here, at a tiny restaurant where they grill the eel over charcoal fire while brushing it with tare sauce, the smokiness combined with the fattiness of the eel made it a home run. The rice beneath it had absorbed all the drippings.
Another day, I tried hitsumabushi. This dish involve the eel being chopped up and eaten three ways: plain, with condiments, and finally as ochazuke, with tea poured over it. While I liked the variety, I didn’t need any more than the first option.
Random Meals That Had No Business Being This Good
The more random restaurants that I stumbled upon with no expectations are some of the better ones I’ve ate at in Osaka. I saw a Peking duck at a Chinese restaurant I walked past on the way home from the hotel. The soup dumplings was piping hot in a bamboo steamer, so I had to wait five minutes before I could bite into them.
The mapo tofu in a clay pot was so spicy I had to grab for the glass of water. It was a spur-of-the-moment king crab feast I could never turn down. We had gyoza and ramen at a late night spot near train station.
Even a hamburger steak covered in curry sauce and an omelette, which sounds like a hot, goopy mess but was absolutely perfect after a long day of walking around. Osaka simply doesn’t really do bad food. It is not even the random stuff.
When I arrived in Osaka, I expected a couple of decent meals, perhaps some over-hyped tourist trap restaurants. Instead, I found myself in a place where it’s simply normal to eat well. No guidebook required.
No reservation needed. No inside knowledge is needed at all… Only a stomach with an empty space waiting to be filled and an open mind prepared to accept whatever will fill it.
So what would you come to Osaka for, or what did you eat when you went?
